Former Manchester United defender Gary Pallister fears he is a “prime candidate” to suffer from dementia after revealing he endured “awful migraines” during his playing days.
Pallister was a four-time Premier League winner with United during the Alex Ferguson era, but the centre-back is concerned about the damage caused by heading the ball during his glittering career.
With several members of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team diagnosed with dementia in recent years, the issue is becoming a major concern among footballers.
Brain injury specialist Professor Willie Stewart was the leader of a FIELD (Football’s influence on lifelong health and dementia) Study in 2019 that found professional players were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.